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Weather report: Wind picks up on the mild Plains

In the West, a freeze warning is in effect in the San Joaquin Valley, although temperatures are considerably higher than those observed at the height of the cold snap last weekend and early this week. The remainder of the West continues to experience dry weather and a gradual warming trend.

On the Plains, mild, dry, breezy weather prevails. Nearly all of the hard red winter wheat crop, from Montana to Texas, has no snow cover and is exposed to potential weather extremes. Today’s high temperatures will exceed 50°F as far north as Montana’s High Plains.

In the Corn Belt, some light snow is falling across the far upper Midwest, mainly across northern Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin. Elsewhere in the Midwest, mild, dry weather prevails.

In the South, snow covers the ground this morning from the southern Appalachians into the southern Mid- Atlantic region. Current snow depths include 3 inches at Bristol, Tennessee; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Roanoke, Virginia. Cool weather covers the South in the wake of the departed storm system. However, the storm did not provide much rain in Florida, where unfavorably dry conditions persist.

Outlook: A blast of Arctic air will reach the northern Plains and the Midwest during the weekend and the Northeast early next week. Temperatures below -20°F can be expected early next week across the far upper Midwest. However, no freezes are expected in winter agricultural areas of southern Texas or peninsular Florida. Meanwhile, mild weather will expand across the High Plains and much of the West. Much of the U.S. will experience dry weather during the next 5 days, although periods of snow can be expected from the Great Lakes region into the Northeast. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for January 23-27 calls for near- to above-normal temperatures nationwide, except for colder-than-normal conditions in the Northeast. Meanwhile, below-normal precipitation across the nation’s midsection and from California into the Southwest will contrast with wetter-than-normal weather in much of the Northwest, the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, and from the Great Lakes region into the Northeast.